MR

All I could think of when I read this was this episode of Friends

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_ESeEZD_OY

Toronto man pays gym fees for 20 years after quitting

17/05/2011 8:57:00 PM

ctvtoronto.ca
It might have been the most expensive failed New Year's resolution of all time. A Toronto man says he has been making monthly payments to a fitness club he joined for three months -- nearly two decades ago.

A Toronto man says he has been making monthly payments to a fitness club he joined for three months -- nearly two decades ago.

Peter Bissoondath joined a club called World Gym in 1992 but quit after three months, thinking his obligation was done.

Admitting he doesn't check bank statements closely, Bissoondath said he just recently realized that a monthly charge of $35 was linked to his brief time at the gym.

"I couldn't believe that. I had no reason to know," Bissoondath told CTV Toronto.

After he quit World Gym, the club was acquired by Premier Fitness. His membership was transferred to Premier Fitness, and payments continued to come out.

Bissoondath's bank only had files dating back 10 years, but he approached Premier Fitness and asked for help. He said he knew it was his fault, but was hoping they would refund half of his money.

Premier Fitness spokesman Al Guarino said the club could do better than that for Bissoondath. After checking their books, Premier Fitness refunded the entire $7,897 he had paid to the club over the years.

"He understands this is a World Gym issue dating back to 1992, he agrees Premier Fitness was not at fault in this matter. We are giving him a refund and I think he is walking away very happy," Guarino told CTV Toronto.

Bissoondath says he is very grateful, adding that he'll be more careful with the money in the future.

"Believe it or not that is money I did not have and I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to put it in an RRSP," he said.

This happened to my son. He had a limited membership, sent in the letter of cancellation when he was supposed to and then got billed by Bally's for the next two years anyway.
Luckily, they got sold or something along those lines associated with bankruptcy court and the new administration reimbursed him everything that had been debited after the initial contract had ended.

He's lucky he got a full refund, they didn't have to. How can you not look at even one of your bank statements in 20 years???

Don wrote:This happened to my son. He had a limited membership, sent in the letter of cancellation when he was supposed to and then got billed by Bally's for the next two years anyway.
Luckily, they got sold or something along those lines associated with bankruptcy court and the new administration reimbursed him everything that had been debited after the initial contract had ended.

I was a member of Ballys in the early 90s....tried to quit. They took me to court. I won. I lived outside some technical radius that you had to live within to get stuck paying....fuck 'em!

S2M wrote:

Don wrote:This happened to my son. He had a limited membership, sent in the letter of cancellation when he was supposed to and then got billed by Bally's for the next two years anyway.
Luckily, they got sold or something along those lines associated with bankruptcy court and the new administration reimbursed him everything that had been debited after the initial contract had ended.

I was a member of Ballys in the early 90s....tried to quit. They took me to court. I won. I lived outside some technical radius that you had to live within to get stuck paying....fuck 'em!

They ignored all of his correspondence until I finally went with him down to Norwalk and into their corporate offices, with my little briefcase. Then they couldn't have been nicer, placing the blame on the prior ownership.

Being on the banking side of things, I remember many situations over the years where the customers stopped payment on their cheques/automatic debits after cancelling their memberships - only to find that the gym changes the amount just enough so that the system doesn't 'catch' the stop payment. These guys are ruthless - although they can't get away with that as easily as they used to.

Don wrote:

S2M wrote:

Don wrote:This happened to my son. He had a limited membership, sent in the letter of cancellation when he was supposed to and then got billed by Bally's for the next two years anyway.
Luckily, they got sold or something along those lines associated with bankruptcy court and the new administration reimbursed him everything that had been debited after the initial contract had ended.

I was a member of Ballys in the early 90s....tried to quit. They took me to court. I won. I lived outside some technical radius that you had to live within to get stuck paying....fuck 'em!

They ignored all of his correspondence until I finally went with him down to Norwalk and into their corporate offices, with my little briefcase. Then they couldn't have been nicer, placing the blame on the prior ownership.

And did you lead off with 'I Wanna Quit The Gym'???

Triple S wrote:Being on the banking side of things, I remember many situations over the years where the customers stopped payment on their cheques/automatic debits after cancelling their memberships - only to find that the gym changes the amount just enough so that the system doesn't 'catch' the stop payment. These guys are ruthless - although they can't get away with that as easily as they used to.

That was one thing I DID NOT have my son do. These guys were known to be quick on reporting to the credit agencies and even if you win in the end, fixing your credit back up was not something I wanted him to go through.

Triple S wrote:

Don wrote:

S2M wrote:

Don wrote:This happened to my son. He had a limited membership, sent in the letter of cancellation when he was supposed to and then got billed by Bally's for the next two years anyway.
Luckily, they got sold or something along those lines associated with bankruptcy court and the new administration reimbursed him everything that had been debited after the initial contract had ended.

I was a member of Ballys in the early 90s....tried to quit. They took me to court. I won. I lived outside some technical radius that you had to live within to get stuck paying....fuck 'em!

They ignored all of his correspondence until I finally went with him down to Norwalk and into their corporate offices, with my little briefcase. Then they couldn't have been nicer, placing the blame on the prior ownership.

And did you lead off with 'I Wanna Quit The Gym'???

He had a temporary short term membership, which they had been offering. I made sure that he hadn't triggered any of the small print, turning it into a long term commitment. We were 100% in the right.

I check my BA's checking/savings/lines of cr, several times a day ...identity
theft, you know!! No way I would've been paying fees for that length
of time. The guy's lucky he got it back ...all the interest he missed, though ...
when it was good!!

Triple S wrote:All I could think of when I read this was this epidode of Friends

lol ...that was great!!

Michigan Girl wrote:I check my BA's checking/savings/lines of cr, several times a day ...identity
theft, you know!! No way I would've been paying fees for that length
of time. The guy's lucky he got it back ...all the interest he missed, though ...
when it was good!!

Triple S wrote:All I could think of when I read this was this epidode of Friends

lol ...that was great!!

Speaking of BA, I found out they have an upper tier customer service that handles all of their big shots. If you don't get satisfaction at the regular level for anything , let me know MG and I'll slip you the number.

Michigan Girl wrote:I check my BA's checking/savings/lines of cr, several times a day ...identity
theft, you know!! No way I would've been paying fees for that length
of time. The guy's lucky he got it back ...all the interest he missed, though ...
when it was good!!

Triple S wrote:All I could think of when I read this was this epidode of Friends

lol ...that was great!!

And thanks for (unintentionally) bringing attention to my spelling error by quoting me

Triple S wrote:Being on the banking side of things, I remember many situations over the years where the customers stopped payment on their cheques/automatic debits after cancelling their memberships - only to find that the gym changes the amount just enough so that the system doesn't 'catch' the stop payment. These guys are ruthless - although they can't get away with that as easily as they used to.

I learned that recently and decided never to sign on to anything that requires PADs! I set up automatic payments on my online banking and I can cancel or change them anytime. Besides, who needs a gym membership when I have my Chuck Norris Total Gym? (I have the cheap model I bought at Zellers, not the fancy one on TV, but it's a great piece of equipment, and I already had a treadmill.) The only thing I'm missing is one of those elliptical machines everyone loves, but I can always pay a drop-in fee to a gym once a week if I decide to use one.

How is the Xbox Dance Fitness program?

SherriBerry wrote:

Triple S wrote:Being on the banking side of things, I remember many situations over the years where the customers stopped payment on their cheques/automatic debits after cancelling their memberships - only to find that the gym changes the amount just enough so that the system doesn't 'catch' the stop payment. These guys are ruthless - although they can't get away with that as easily as they used to.

I learned that recently and decided never to sign on to anything that requires PADs! I set up automatic payments on my online banking and I can cancel or change them anytime. Besides, who needs a gym membership when I have my Chuck Norris Total Gym? (I have the cheap model I bought at Zellers, not the fancy one on TV, but it's a great piece of equipment, and I already had a treadmill.) The only thing I'm missing is one of those elliptical machines everyone loves, but I can always pay a drop-in fee to a gym once a week if I decide to use one.

How is the Xbox Dance Fitness program?

You mean that Zumba fitness one? I never did buy it because the reviews weren't very good. I'm sticking to Dance Central for now, they're already talking about DC2 and some new features. It's just getting harder to do now that the weather's getting warmer - almost time to hook up the portable AC, I guess, or R's going to find me passed out on the living room floor

Triple S wrote:

SherriBerry wrote:

Triple S wrote:Being on the banking side of things, I remember many situations over the years where the customers stopped payment on their cheques/automatic debits after cancelling their memberships - only to find that the gym changes the amount just enough so that the system doesn't 'catch' the stop payment. These guys are ruthless - although they can't get away with that as easily as they used to.

I learned that recently and decided never to sign on to anything that requires PADs! I set up automatic payments on my online banking and I can cancel or change them anytime. Besides, who needs a gym membership when I have my Chuck Norris Total Gym? (I have the cheap model I bought at Zellers, not the fancy one on TV, but it's a great piece of equipment, and I already had a treadmill.) The only thing I'm missing is one of those elliptical machines everyone loves, but I can always pay a drop-in fee to a gym once a week if I decide to use one.

How is the Xbox Dance Fitness program?

You mean that Zumba fitness one? I never did buy it because the reviews weren't very good. I'm sticking to Dance Central for now, they're already talking about DC2 and some new features. It's just getting harder to do now that the weather's getting warmer - almost time to hook up the portable AC, I guess, or R's going to find me passed out on the living room floor

I bought a small TV with a built-in DVD player and mounted it on the wall in front of the treadmill so I'll use it more often! Usually when I feel like using the treadmill there is nothing on TV to distract me, but now I can pop in a disc. The best one was watching episodes of 'The Golden Girls' - the time sure goes by more quickly when you're laughing. The weather has been beautiful, but I can only walk so fast and far with the dog stopping to sniff everything that it doesn't feel like much of a workout!

Ross: "One more time...."Hey, don't you want a washboard stomach and rock-hard Pecs??" "
Chandler: "NO - I want a flabby gut and saggy MAN-BREASTS!!"

This show is my "I Love Lucy"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_ESeEZD_OY